German police seize Pirate Party servers, looking at Anon’s toolkit

German police have seized Pirate Party servers days before a major state …

Acting on a French request for assistance, German police today confiscated German Pirate Party servers—apparently hoping to search the prominent collaboration tool widely used within Anonymous to select targets for attack.

Authorities appear to be concerned about a possible attack on French energy giant EDF. The German Pirate Party said in a statement that it does not believe itself to be a target of the investigation and expressed willingness “within its legal obligations” to aid French police:

The [Pirate Party] Board does not have information that indicates the necessity to take all servers of the Pirate Party off-line. According to the information it has been provided with, only one single public service on a virtual server of the party was affected. The disconnection of all servers is a massive intrusion into the communications infrastructure of the sixth largest party in Germany. Considering the state elections taking place in Bremen in two days, this caused a severe political damage, which the Board condemns decisively.

In relation to the ongoing investigations, it will have to be verified whether the issued search warrant was actually appropriate, especially whether the principle of proportionality was followed. After all, this action has led to a large-scale breakdown of the technical infrastructure of the Pirate Party Germany. It will also have to be verified whether data have been affected that have no relation to the French investigation.

PiratenPad links in Anonymous chat rooms

The “one single public service” is apparently a reference to the collaborative text editing tool EtherPad. The German Pirate Party has long hosted an installation of the open source EtherPad under the name "PiratenPad," and the PiratenPad install was a particular favorite of Anonymous. Anyone who has spent more than a few minutes in Anonymous chat channels has seen various PiratenPad links used to choose targets, write manifestoes, and collect "dox" on enemies.

The EtherPad Foundation, which coordinates development of the underlying technology, said today, "We entirely support PiratenPad in its struggle, we believe that EtherPad deployments and really-real time collaborative document editing should be a right for all people, great and small."

The group believes the main reason for the raid is “because PiratenPad was being used by the group Anonymous to organize an attack," but notes that even this particular EtherPad install was used for legitimate purposes such as "structured debates around the protests in Spain, so this is a major cause for concern from a libertarian perspective."

Anonymous' main communications tools have been hit hard in the last two weeks. The main Internet Relay Chat servers, run by a group called AnonOps, were taken over last week by a dissident member and have only recently been relocated to a different domain name, which continues to have "issues." Now comes the attack on PiratenPad, though an AnonOps leader says that "police.de wasn't my fault."

Rick Falkvinge, who heads the Swedish Pirate Party, came to the defense of his piratical brethren today, writing, "Doing this to a democratic party—Germany’s sixth largest, actually—two days before an election is nothing short of a democratic sabotage. This shows why we must introduce understanding of information policy into the justice system all across Europe. A computer is not just something you can carry away; doing so has consequences. It is not a wrench, and yet the law (and police) treat it like any tool, just like a wrench."

In response to the takeover of its servers, the German Pirate Party has been tweeting up some sturm und drang today, and its "#servergate" hashtag is the second highest "trending" tag in Germany.

Not surprisingly, the main German police website is now down, as is the website of federal investigators (the BKA). As one Anon put it in a tweet, "#Anonymous to german police: 'Let me introduce myself...' #servergate #PoliceMeetsCocks."

But the German Pirate Party called the attacks inappropriate. "We condemn the totally inappropriate actions by investigators,” said Sebastian Mink, chair of the Chairman Pirate Party, “but these actions are not a reason to attack other websites and we distance ourselves from such attacks.”

The timing is a bit unfortunate, but I don't think it's political sabotage. I mean, let's be realistic here, the Pirate Party has little chance for political success, unfortunately.

Still, I don't quite like the attempt to go after the tools rather than the perpetrators. Does that mean we now have to ban all P2P software and maybe even guns and even hammers, just because it was used to do bad things? From this perspective, there is a distinct stink surrounding this operation.

So if Anon used Google Docs to gather info, would German Police confiscate all of Google's servers? I'd love to see them try to haul away that many servers....

And what of all the other documents stored on PiratenPad that have nothing to do with Anon? Will the police be able to peruse those as well -- you know, just to make sure there wasn't any other illegal stuff going on.

Why is a political party aiding criminal conduct? Especially when it has nothing to do with Germany and is being used to coordinate attacks against foreign governments, companies and citizens. That isn't the type of activities that a democratic political party should be involved in.

As for the timing, Anonymous has been attacking Sony recently along with other people I am sure so siezing the computers is probably due to those attacks by the looks of it is completely justified.

But the German Pirate Party called the attacks inappropriate. "We condemn the totally inappropriate actions by investigators,” said Sebastian Mink, chair of the Chairman Pirate Party, “but these actions are not a reason to attack other websites and we distance ourselves from such attacks.”

Fortunately for the German Pirate Party, Anonymous takes actions unilaterally. No support, nor even approval, from anyone is required for them to do anything on behalf of, or in spite of, anyone else. It's mob justice at both its best and its worst. It does make me wonder however if instead of a quasi-anarchy it could be instead turned into something closer to real democracy by creating a system that required at least 50% of the user base to agree on the target of attack. Of course, I've got no idea how you would possibly design such a system in a way that couldn't be circumvented or exploited.

Why is a political party aiding criminal conduct? Especially when it has nothing to do with Germany and is being used to coordinate attacks against foreign governments, companies and citizens. That isn't the type of activities that a democratic political party should be involved in.

You're absolutely right. Why should a political party provide a free service for communication and collaboration? Someone could use that service for plotting acts of terrorism and swapping child pornography. Won't someone please think of the children and their freedom?

Why is a political party aiding criminal conduct? Especially when it has nothing to do with Germany and is being used to coordinate attacks against foreign governments, companies and citizens. That isn't the type of activities that a democratic political party should be involved in.

You're absolutely right. Why should a political party provide a free service for communication and collaboration? Someone could use that service for plotting acts of terrorism and swapping child pornography. Won't someone please think of the children and their freedom?

The Pirate Party name comes from their penchant for going around with eye patches and saying 'Aaargh'.

Why is a political party aiding criminal conduct? Especially when it has nothing to do with Germany and is being used to coordinate attacks against foreign governments, companies and citizens. That isn't the type of activities that a democratic political party should be involved in.

The US Pirate Party (while it existed, before it fizzled in December when myself and another officer quit) used those services for it's internal work. I also know the UK Pirate Party does, and it was vital during the local elections and referendum earlier this month. In fact, it was even used to draft the open letter we wrote to Anonymous in November asking them to STOP the DDoS attacks.

Why is a political party aiding criminal conduct? Especially when it has nothing to do with Germany and is being used to coordinate attacks against foreign governments, companies and citizens. That isn't the type of activities that a democratic political party should be involved in.

As for the timing, Anonymous has been attacking Sony recently along with other people I am sure so siezing the computers is probably due to those attacks by the looks of it is completely justified.

As for the timing, Anonymous has been attacking Sony recently along with other people I am sure so siezing the computers is probably due to those attacks by the looks of it is completely justified.

Why the hell bring Sony into it? The stated reason for taking the servers down is right there in the second paragraph of the article and it has nothing to do with Sony. Rumours of someone planning to DoS a utility with 58 nuclear reactors and who provides more than 20% of Europe's electricity might be enough to encourage quick action all by themselves, wouldn't you think?

The US Pirate Party (while it existed, before it fizzled in December when myself and another officer quit) used those services for it's internal work. I also know the UK Pirate Party does, and it was vital during the local elections and referendum earlier this month. In fact, it was even used to draft the open letter we wrote to Anonymous in November asking them to STOP the DDoS attacks.

I don't at all sanction the actions of the German police here, but it has to be said...

Note to self: when I next form a political party, remember to not let random anonymous people use my planning infrastructure to plan criminal activity. That will save me the effort of having to draft letters asking them to pretty please stop.

Rumours of someone planning to DoS a utility with 58 nuclear reactors and who provides more than 20% of Europe's electricity might be enough to encourage quick action all by themselves, wouldn't you think?.

The timing is a bit unfortunate, but I don't think it's political sabotage. I mean, let's be realistic here, the Pirate Party has little chance for political success, unfortunately.

If you want to do political sabotage, it's best done when movement has no chances. The voters like to vote for people they think have a chance of getting elected. It is easier and more effective to sabotase party when the support is too low to get one representative elected. When the party gets a representative to parliament it's too late. It is then a viable political movement.

So we can't count out political sabotage simply for the party not having a chance of getting a represantive. Any percentage of votes they get now will be in the minds of voters in the next elections, and the more a party gets votes now, the more likely it is that they get more votes in the next election.

Police isn't a apolitical institute. They do try to influence elections and lobby politicians, even if this may, or may not have been political sabotage.

Why is a political party aiding criminal conduct? Especially when it has nothing to do with Germany and is being used to coordinate attacks against foreign governments, companies and citizens. That isn't the type of activities that a democratic political party should be involved in.

The US Pirate Party (while it existed, before it fizzled in December when myself and another officer quit) used those services for it's internal work. I also know the UK Pirate Party does, and it was vital during the local elections and referendum earlier this month. In fact, it was even used to draft the open letter we wrote to Anonymous in November asking them to STOP the DDoS attacks.

Right, you guys didn't open it up to the public and then did nothing while someone other group used it for their own purposes. Would you have allowed open access to one of your servers for anyone to dump files on it?

I don't have a problem with the German Pirate Party running a collaboration website, my problem is that they didn't operate such a service in a responsible manner and allowed some other group to exploit their infrastructure to organize criminal activity and didn't do anything about it.

In fact it is probably because they didn't do anything to stop it which allowed investigators to widen the scope of the investigation to determine if the pirate party is involved. So IMO the seizure is reasonable.

I don't feel bad for the pirate party because in this case they allowed this to occur because they were irresponsible with at least one part of their infrastructure, just like I don't feel bad for Sony because they were irresponsible with their network.

Why is a political party aiding criminal conduct? Especially when it has nothing to do with Germany and is being used to coordinate attacks against foreign governments, companies and citizens. That isn't the type of activities that a democratic political party should be involved in.

The US Pirate Party (while it existed, before it fizzled in December when myself and another officer quit) used those services for it's internal work. I also know the UK Pirate Party does, and it was vital during the local elections and referendum earlier this month. In fact, it was even used to draft the open letter we wrote to Anonymous in November asking them to STOP the DDoS attacks.

Right, you guys didn't open it up to the public and then did nothing while someone other group used it for their own purposes. Would you have allowed open access to one of your servers for anyone to dump files on it?

I don't have a problem with the German Pirate Party running a collaboration website, my problem is that they didn't operate such a service in a responsible manner and allowed some other group to exploit their infrastructure to organize criminal activity and didn't do anything about it.

In fact it is probably because they didn't do anything to stop it which allowed investigators to widen the scope of the investigation to determine if the pirate party is involved. So IMO the seizure is reasonable.

I don't feel bad for the pirate party because in this case they allowed this to occur because they were irresponsible with at least one part of their infrastructure, just like I don't feel bad for Sony because they were irresponsible with their network.

You do realise that more or less all the infrastructure in the world is used for criminal activities? If you are going to destroy all the infrastructure that could be misused there will be nothing left.

When someone misuses infrastructure police goes after that someone not the infrastructure, that is of course if that infrastructure is not owned by a very unwelcome political movement that is disrupting the movement towards a true fascism (highest court is slowing it down quite a lot but they can't fix everything).

The timing is a bit unfortunate, but I don't think it's political sabotage. I mean, let's be realistic here, the Pirate Party has little chance for political success, unfortunately.

If you want to do political sabotage, it's best done when movement has no chances. The voters like to vote for people they think have a chance of getting elected. It is easier and more effective to sabotase party when the support is too low to get one representative elected. When the party gets a representative to parliament it's too late. It is then a viable political movement.

Apart from the two Pirate Party members of Sweden being in the EU parliament, and the dude in the Tunesian government.

Maybe you should check again if the Pirate Party of Germany didn't actually get someone elected? They did, fuck the trick questions.

Apart from the two Pirate Party members of Sweden being in the EU parliament, and the dude in the Tunesian government.

Maybe you should check again if the Pirate Party of Germany didn't actually get someone elected? They did, fuck the trick questions.

Except they didnt win any seat, they got one because a sitting member of parliament switched parties. The german Pirate Party has, as far as I can tell, never even gotten close to the 5% watershed mark, they're results are mostly around or lower than 2% of the electorate.

Apart from the two Pirate Party members of Sweden being in the EU parliament, and the dude in the Tunesian government.

Maybe you should check again if the Pirate Party of Germany didn't actually get someone elected? They did, fuck the trick questions.

Except they didnt win any seat, they got one because a sitting member of parliament switched parties. The german Pirate Party has, as far as I can tell, never even gotten close to the 5% watershed mark, they're results are mostly around or lower than 2% of the electorate.

I'd think that representing 1.5 million Germans is quite significant, with or without a seat.

Some facts got wrong in this article: RIck Falkvinge is the /founder/ of the Swedish Pirate Party but he is no longer the head of the party. The party leader is Anna Troberg: http://annatroberg.com. The head of the party is a democratically elected board.

Why is a political party aiding criminal conduct? Especially when it has nothing to do with Germany and is being used to coordinate attacks against foreign governments, companies and citizens. That isn't the type of activities that a democratic political party should be involved in.

The US Pirate Party (while it existed, before it fizzled in December when myself and another officer quit) used those services for it's internal work. I also know the UK Pirate Party does, and it was vital during the local elections and referendum earlier this month. In fact, it was even used to draft the open letter we wrote to Anonymous in November asking them to STOP the DDoS attacks.

Right, you guys didn't open it up to the public and then did nothing while someone other group used it for their own purposes. Would you have allowed open access to one of your servers for anyone to dump files on it?

I don't have a problem with the German Pirate Party running a collaboration website, my problem is that they didn't operate such a service in a responsible manner and allowed some other group to exploit their infrastructure to organize criminal activity and didn't do anything about it.

In fact it is probably because they didn't do anything to stop it which allowed investigators to widen the scope of the investigation to determine if the pirate party is involved. So IMO the seizure is reasonable.

I don't feel bad for the pirate party because in this case they allowed this to occur because they were irresponsible with at least one part of their infrastructure, just like I don't feel bad for Sony because they were irresponsible with their network.

You do realise that more or less all the infrastructure in the world is used for criminal activities? If you are going to destroy all the infrastructure that could be misused there will be nothing left.

When someone misuses infrastructure police goes after that someone not the infrastructure, that is of course if that infrastructure is not owned by a very unwelcome political movement that is disrupting the movement towards a true fascism (highest court is slowing it down quite a lot but they can't fix everything).

It may not be popular for me to point out a point from Mr Robert Mcnamra but essentially all infrastructure to tools and resources are simply tools to an ends. Its however the usage of the tools that determine the actual morality of the ends. In that respect it would reply that the infrastructure is in a sense a tool used by people and how they use it, whether responsibly, illegally or what not is at their discretion but the circumstances that arise from their actions and consequences are proportionate to their actions.

The pirate party did allow someone to use their stuff with the intention of illegal activity and I can't say that its something that "just occurred" or is a sudden epiphany; there seems to be some history with this occurring. While they have supported good causes (in my perspective at least) you can't also white-wash it with the "they do some good so best to ignore the bad".

I also think that while the Pirate Party may be held in high esteem by some, they have a long way to work. Sometimes in order to change a system you have to be willing to participate in it and dissociating yourself from the more extreme elements and the fact that these days Anon does get as much of an embrace as it used to is something that needs to be considered.

I also think that while the Pirate Party may be held in high esteem by some, they have a long way to work. Sometimes in order to change a system you have to be willing to participate in it and dissociating yourself from the more extreme elements and the fact that these days Anon does get as much of an embrace as it used to is something that needs to be considered.

The Pirate Party does dissociate themselves from Anon, as far as we know they have nothing to do with us, and we do not condone breaking the law.

Why is a political party aiding criminal conduct? Especially when it has nothing to do with Germany and is being used to coordinate attacks against foreign governments, companies and citizens. That isn't the type of activities that a democratic political party should be involved in.

The US Pirate Party (while it existed, before it fizzled in December when myself and another officer quit) used those services for it's internal work. I also know the UK Pirate Party does, and it was vital during the local elections and referendum earlier this month. In fact, it was even used to draft the open letter we wrote to Anonymous in November asking them to STOP the DDoS attacks.

Right, you guys didn't open it up to the public and then did nothing while someone other group used it for their own purposes. Would you have allowed open access to one of your servers for anyone to dump files on it?

I don't have a problem with the German Pirate Party running a collaboration website, my problem is that they didn't operate such a service in a responsible manner and allowed some other group to exploit their infrastructure to organize criminal activity and didn't do anything about it.

In fact it is probably because they didn't do anything to stop it which allowed investigators to widen the scope of the investigation to determine if the pirate party is involved. So IMO the seizure is reasonable.

I don't feel bad for the pirate party because in this case they allowed this to occur because they were irresponsible with at least one part of their infrastructure, just like I don't feel bad for Sony because they were irresponsible with their network.

You do realise that more or less all the infrastructure in the world is used for criminal activities? If you are going to destroy all the infrastructure that could be misused there will be nothing left.

When someone misuses infrastructure police goes after that someone not the infrastructure, that is of course if that infrastructure is not owned by a very unwelcome political movement that is disrupting the movement towards a true fascism (highest court is slowing it down quite a lot but they can't fix everything).

It may not be popular for me to point out a point from Mr Robert Mcnamra but essentially all infrastructure to tools and resources are simply tools to an ends. Its however the usage of the tools that determine the actual morality of the ends. In that respect it would reply that the infrastructure is in a sense a tool used by people and how they use it, whether responsibly, illegally or what not is at their discretion but the circumstances that arise from their actions and consequences are proportionate to their actions.

The pirate party did allow someone to use their stuff with the intention of illegal activity and I can't say that its something that "just occurred" or is a sudden epiphany; there seems to be some history with this occurring. While they have supported good causes (in my perspective at least) you can't also white-wash it with the "they do some good so best to ignore the bad".

I also think that while the Pirate Party may be held in high esteem by some, they have a long way to work. Sometimes in order to change a system you have to be willing to participate in it and dissociating yourself from the more extreme elements and the fact that these days Anon does get as much of an embrace as it used to is something that needs to be considered.

I was waiting for this to happen in my life time. I have watched Corporations taking over and continually flexing their muscle and pissing on the consumers for over forty years. A bunch of old people running Corporations with out computer savvy. Hiring 30, 40 and 50 year olds to take care of security, Now you have young people born with this technology and sucking this tech up like a vacuum cleaner. These old fuddy duds wonder how their computers are being hacked. Every time I read of another onslaught on one of these Corporations, it does my heart good. The Pirate Party speaks its mind and openly rejects copyright as its being rammed down peoples throat especially the Americanized version. So all you young computer savvy people who have decided to fight fire with fire, the silent majority applauds you.